You learn something new everyday it seems… I didn’t realize that ICMP on Linux required extra privileges. Looks like /bin/ping is usually suid root, which explains why you can ping www.google.com as a normal user. But the Ignition process will not be able to use the raw socket form (see this thread for a good explanation: linux - Which Privilege Should be Obtained for ICMP Request at Java? - Stack Overflow) and thus likely return false (because port 7/tcp is not likely open on the target host).
Another point for @pturmel … 